Nokia Reading and Transport for Windows Phone, hands-on (video)

Just yesterday, Nokia took to the stage at Mobile World Congress to unveil its latest Windows Phone, the Lumia 610. Curiously, the company also surprised us with two new Windows Phone applications, affectionately known as Nokia Reading and Nokia Transport. We've since taken to the show floor and happened to grab demonstrations of both apps, each shown off by the creators themselves. Join us after the break as we explore Nokia's latest offerings.

In the case of Nokia Reading, it combines an attractive RSS aggregator and an e-book reader into one application, which fits perfectly within the Metro interface. Users will be able to select from a number of pre-defined news sources (with Engadget among the mix), and search for feeds based on their interest, which is then displayed in an attractive magazine layout. The e-book portion of the app offers both portrait and landscape orientation, allows users to pin individual titles to the home screen for easy access and provides support for audio books. Perhaps most interesting about Nokia Reading, however, is the announcement of the company's own digital bookstore. It'll launch first in Spain, Russia, France, Italy, Germany and the UK, where in every case, local editors will be tasked to provide content that's both popular and relevant to the region.

Symbian users are likely quite familiar with Nokia Transport, but the app has now found a new home on Windows Phone. With a heavy emphasis on public transit, it supports time-table routing in over 80 cities and uses map data to provide guidance (without specific times) for more than 500 areas across the globe. As with Nokia Reading, commonly accessed routes can be pinned to the home screen, and while some of the more advanced features of the Symbian application have yet to be integrated into the Windows Phone version, Nokia tells us that additional functionality is on the way.